Now Let's Find a Place to Live

Let's start with a premise. The number of people who live aboard their boat also own a home and, in some cases, more than one. We did not. So the decision to sell the boat required us to start the process of finding a place to live.

That process started in late December and quite by accident. Our good friend, Jim Lampl, invited us to join him and his cousins, Micheal and Deborah, from Pittsburgh for lunch at Marina Jack. As the conversation proceeded we learned that they wanted to move to Sarasota and that they had been looking, actually "scouting out," properties in the downtown area. I say "scouting out" because their time frame was about one year down the road. However, they had found a terrific furnished unit at 1771 Ringling, which is on the east side of downtown Sarasota. The unit, 601, was also fully and tastefully furnished. The asking price was $495,000.

At this point in time two couples had looked at the boat and neither made an offer. The visit by Wayne and Catherine was still over a week away and they were still "classified" by us as prospective buyers. Still, the thought in my mind was that at some point we were going to need a place to live. In addition, Diana had expressed a desire to move off the boat and we had looked at a small one bedroom apartment in a new building just on the outskirts of downtown.

So as we sat there I made a proposal to my friend Jim that we go partners on the property on the basis that Diana and I would live there until his cousins were ready to move. Then we would turn the property over to them at the price we paid for the unit. Jim thought that was a good idea and we proceeded to look at the unit. It was lovely. See photos below.

1771 Deck

1771 Dining Room

1771 Kitchen

1771 Living Room

1771 Bedroom

1771 Pool which the the unit overlooked

1771 Ringling Blvd

Did I mention the dog? Well it turns out that Michael and Deborah had a 65 pound dog. Of course you, my readers, know that we have Kodi who weighs in at 57 pounds. Well it seems that the building accepted dogs but they had to be under 50 pounds. We figured that given Kodi's status as an ambassador for Southeastern Guide Dogs that they might make an exception. At that point we did not realize that that policy was RIGID.

Short version of the story. I negotiated a good deal on the unit and we brought Kodi to meet the building manager. She was unmoved by Kodi's ambassador status and basically told us to get rid of the dog. Further, her inflexibility boded poorly for the building accepting Mike and Deborah's 65 pound dog. We immediately withdrew our offer and our realtor unwound the deal.

Fast forward to early January. By December 24 we had a signed offer from Wayne and Catherine to purchase the boat with a sea trial scheduled on Monday January 24 and, assuming the boat passed muster, a closing date of February 1. Things had progressed MUCH quicker than we expected and we were about to become "homeless" AGAIN.

Explanatory Note: In 1996 we had sold our town home in Palatine Illinois. The closing date was set for early August. Additionally, we had a purchase contract in place for the property at 1030 W. Wrightwood in Chicago's Lincoln Park (see previous article for photos). The problem was the closing dates did not align and there was a two week gap between vacating Palatine and occupying Wrightwood. Oops. We were about to become homeless. Diana's friend and colleague, Carol, came to the rescue. Carol owned a lovely Frank Lloyd Wright condominium at 5000 S. Lakeshore Drive that was currently unoccupied and unfurnished. This condo was in the Hyde Park District, which is the home of the University of Chicago campus that was less than a 1/6th of a mile west of her condo. It was also diagonally across the street from the Museum of Science and Industry. She graciously let us use it for the two week "transition period." All that was required was that our mover drop off a few pieces of furniture at Carol's place before putting the stuff in storage for two weeks. Problem solved!

Nobody came to our rescue this time. Time to look for a place to live.

We liked Bibi-Ann Allard and Kevin Moran, the real estate agents that we worked with when we made the offer at 1771 Ringling so we reconnected with them.  Again, the goal was to be in downtown Sarasota. They showed us a unit at 1350 Main Street (#1406), a building on the corner of Main Street and Palm Avenue, which is right in the heart of downtown. It was listed for $1,070,000. The following day we withdrew our offer.

1350 Main Street inside the circle

Unit 1406 is one below the penthouse

The unit was spectacular with a west exposure overlooking Marina Jack and Sarasota Bay.

1350 Main Street looking northwest at marina Jack and Golden Gate Point

1350 Main Street looking northwest

We spent several hours on a Sunday during an open house to get a sense of the sun's effect in the late afternoon. Needless to say, even in January, it was extremely bright requiring window shades with a very high UV rating. We also noted two other issues. The kitchen, while lovely, only had two drawers. Allow me to repeat. Just two drawers. We had eight on the boat and all of them were filled. The other issue was the air conditioning in the master bedroom did not seem to cooling that room adequately. Given that this was in early January, when Sarasota is the coolest, this was a concern. We were assured that it could be corrected but we were skeptical.

1350 Main Street Galley Kitchen

1350 Main Street living room

The clock was ticking as we got closer to the boat's February 1 closing date. So, on Sunday, January 13, we went to an open house at 100 Central Avenue and looked at several units. One of the units, number 1018, a 2 bedroom 2 1/2 bath with a lovely east exposure, was worth consideration and we left thinking that we might make an offer. Incidentally, our friend, Jim, who has lived in this building for 10 years accompanied us on this adventure. Needless to say, there were lot's of people at the open house looking at unit 1018. As we exited the building, Jim asked us if we were serious about unit 1018. He then pointed out that two of the other units on the 10th floor, that we had also visited, had been sold that very afternoon. He predicted that given the amount of people who were looking at unit 1018 hat there might me a serious buyer in that bunch. Essentially, he said if you want this unit you better make an offer.

This proved to be fortuitous. Several months after we closed and occupied the unit we met the couple that bought the other east facing unit and learned that they had made an offer on unit 1018 literally five minutes after the sellers' had accepted our offer.

In the next article I include photos of unit 1018 and a bit more of the story of our transition from live-aboard boaters to condo dwellers.

Written by Les.